Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	truth_n	word_n	7,274	5	4.1793	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61479	The last sermon of Mr. Joseph Stephens late lecturer of St. Giles's Cripplegate, St. Margaret's Loth-bury, and St. Michael's Woodstreet. Together with I. A sermon compos'd by him a little before his death, (but never preach'd, being prevented by his last sickness.) II. A sermon concerning the hopes of the righteous at death. III. A sermon of Jam. IV. verse 17th; Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. Lately preachd at the said lectures. All publish'd from his own manuscript copies, fairly written out for the press by himself.	Stevens, Joseph.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5497D; ESTC R220100	32,170	127

happy shalt thou be This says the Wiseman is a continual feast and will bear a Man up under all the uncertainties disappointments conflicts and miseries of this Life He need not resort to Drink or Company to replenish his Mind and relax his Thoughts who is thus caressed and crowned with the pleasing Ecchoes of an unprejudic'd Spirit This was Holy Job's Consolation during his Exilement from Prosperity while his Flesh groaned under a sad Catastrophe and dismal Change of Things Upon a review of his Life past he discovered that he had walked uprightly with God that amidst all the Temptations which Wealth and Fortune could caress him with he had a special regard to the thing that was just and though Providence was pleased to alter his Condition and strip him of all External Goods yet this was his Comfort My righteousness I hold fast I have hitherto retained my integrity and am resolved through the Assistance of Divine Grace that my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Now my design from these words is First of all To shew the Necessity of Holy Resolution wherewith Job fortifies himself against the very worst that may happen to him Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me and so on Secondly To shew how far Holy Resolution is virtuous and in what sense it turns to a good account Thirdly To lay down some Motives to resolve well and timely And then conclude First then I am to shew the Necessity of Holy Resolution wherewith Job fortifies himself against the very worst that may happen to him saying in the Text Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me We all well know by experience that we are naturally depraved by the Presumption and Fall of our first Parents our Inclinations are vile and propense to Evil our Wills stubborn and irregular our Passions violent and mutinous In fine in us that is in our Flesh dwelleth no good thing at all What Motions to Evil do we ever and anon perceive stirred up within us How greedy are our Appetites of the forbidden Fruit What abundance of unbecoming Thoughts invade our Minds and invelop our Spirits in Hurry and Confusion How naturally averse are we from Holy Things How disagreeable is Duty to our Affections In a word how unsuitable is the knowledge of God and another World to us in our Natural State When a Good presents it self and uses forcible Arguments to court our Acceptance how apt are we to boggle and protract to make excuses or to give a flat denial Nay so unhappy are we that interpretatively we take more pains to damn than to save our selves For what a deal of our time do we waste in catering for our Lusts What Difficulties and Hardships do we rub through to gratify our foolish Appetites How many restless Nights and broken Sleeps do we patiently endure to bring an unmanly project to bear In fine what a train of tumultuous Noises will we charge through to oblige a fond Humour and answer a whimsical Disposition This is our Condition by Nature this our Unhappiness through the Transgression of our First Parents But this is not all As we are thus interrupted by our own corrupt Nature so we are in as much danger by Temptations from without The Devil who is rendred for ever incapable of Repentance as sinning without a Tempter envies the hopeful Condition of Man who is admitted to Sorrow and Pardon through the Merits and Satisfaction of a Saviour And therefore uses all his Art and Cunning to stain his Innocence and to bring him into the same miserable Condition with himself He has Apples to please those of tender and Gold to enchant those of riper Years he has Kingdoms to allure the Ambitious and flattering Arguments to betray the Pretenders to Reason The Apostle gives this Character of him That he goes up and down like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and whom he exhorts us to resist stedfast in the Faith He examines and observes Mens Humours and then suits his Temptations proportionably He well knew that Cain was Proud Ambitious and Self-conceited and by degrees induced him to imbrue his Hands in the Innocent Blood of his Brother Abel He knew that Peter was fearful and pusillanimous and so tempted him to deny his Master with Oaths and Curses He knew that Judas was selfish and covetous and therefore prompted him to betay the Holy Jesus for thirty pieces of Silver He is a restless Enemy and purposes to make all he can as miserable as himself But this is our happiness though he is admitted to tempt yet he cannot sorce us to Sin he lays the bait but cannot compel us to swallow it without our consent He importuned our Blessed Saviour to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple but was not impowered to do him the mischief When we stain our Innocence and lose our Peace the blame lies at our own Door the Adversary is not so much in fault It is true he used Arguements insinuated closely and left no means unattempted but it was yet in our choice whether we would hearken to and be overcome by his Allurements Nor can we lay the blame upon God in suffering us to fall but upon our selves for living careless and secure and giving the Enemy fair opportunities and advantages of committing a Rape upon our Integrity Let no man says St. James say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed James 1.13 14. Were we but solicitous and thoughtful aware of the Adversary sensible of our own weaknesses and furnished with wise Considerations we should not be so easily courted to lose our Innocence nor would Temptations have such Influence upon us St. Paul in this Case thus exhorts us Ephes 6.13 14 c. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God But considering I say our natural Depravation whereby we are strongly propense to Evil and averse from that which is Good are liable to the Incursions of Satan and in imminent danger of falling as so many Victims to him what necessity is there of Holy Resolution that seeing we are set in the midst of so many and great Temptations we forthwith wisely resolve to use our utmost care and diligence to stem the tide of our evil Inclinations within and to confront the insinuating Arguments of Temptations

he made it his care and business to dress his Soul for the embraces of the Father of Spirits to think that he shall bathe his dilated Faculties in an overflowing River of Pleasures and feed upon an Happiness which is as large as his Capacity and as lasting as his Being to think that as soon as his Soul is stormed out of the outworks of Nature the Angels which are ministring Spirits will convey it into Abraham's Bosom I say such a thought as this upon a Death-bed mitigates the Ragings of an imperious Disease sweetens the bitter Cup and renders the approaches of Death less formidable and scaring Whereas when a Wicked man after repeated Provocations and wilful resistings of Divine Grace is flung by an invisible hand upon his Sick or Death-bed he is presently Arraigned by his injured Conscience and a large Catalogue of all his Sins is opened and read before him he is afraid to Dye because he has all along lived in Rebellion against God And here we may imagine what a surprize the Wretch is in to think that he must live out a long Eternity in unpitiable Sighs and Groans and endure the Vengeance of an irreconcilable God that no sooner will Death cut the Thread of Life but he enters into a World of despairing Ghosts and that at the Day of Judgment must change his unhappy condition for a much worse these are the Thoughts which usually attend ungodly men when they are making their Exit unless they are hardned or deprived of their senses through the Violence of their Distemper This is the last punishment of a vicious course in this Life And one would think that such an uncouth remembrance of things at such a time when a man is under the ill circumstance of an intolerable Distemper when Nature is almost spent the Eyes darkned like a sullied Mirror the Face besmeared with a clammy sweat the whole Body trembling under the Severity of death when the Soul as it were sets hovering upon the Lip just advancing upon the Shoar of another invisible World I say one would think that it were enough to make men afraid of Sin to be thus miserably tormented with the Reflections of it when they are stepping out of this into a wide World of Spirits where their sorrows will be Augmented and the remembrance how they have lived here will afflict them more than to be stung with Snakes whipt with Scorpions and all the Instruments of torture applied unto them And it is no less a prevalent Motive to the Study and Practice of Religion that it influences a man to generous Actions and to order his Conversation so that he shall not be ashamed nor afraid to look back upon the passages of his Life past when he comes to dye but revive his drooping Spirits with the Hope and Assurance of commencing a Happy and Joyful Eternity having in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God had his Conversation in the World And so says Solomon in the Text The righteous hath hope in his death the consideration of his well-spent Life lifts him up at the last gasp with the confidence of living with God Angels and Saints Which words manifestly imply this Proposition viz That a truly pious and holy Life produces a happy and comfortable Death Now my Business shall be First To prove the Truth of this Then Secondly To persuade Men to the Practice of Religion from the consideration that it brings Peace at the last and qualifies their Souls for the Embraces of the Father of Spirits First then I am to prove the Truth of this viz. That a truly Pious and Holy Life produces a Happy and Comfortable Death which is the same in sense and meaning with what the Wise-man asserts in the Text That the Righteous hath hope in his Death as if he had said That man that Exercises himself daily to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man who by Study and special Arts hath contracted an intire love to God and Religion and lives in a constant and unfeigned Obedience to the Institutions of the Gospel shall be so far from having any frightful Reflection upon what is past or dismal Prospect of what is to come at the time of his Death that the very consideration of his sincerity in the Practice of Religion will revive and cheer his drooping Spirit with the Hope and Assurance of a joyful Resurrection to Eternal Life through the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ by the imputation of whose Righteousness he shall be enabled to stand blameless before God How true this is our own Experience and Observation tells us When we have visited a Friend Neighbour or Relation who have had their Conversation here in simplicity and godly sincerity with what cheerfulness have they resigned to God's Will and Disposal How little have they been concerned at the Thoughts of approaching Death With what Comfort and Satisfaction have they looked back upon and remembred the general course of their Actions How have they rejoiced in the Testimony of a good Conscience How light and easy did the Yokes of Pain and Sickness set upon them being taken up with the Thoughts of a future happy Life and Established with the assurance of Reigning the Lives of Victorious Saints What Lectures of Admonishment have they delivered to their surviving Acquaintances that they would live in the fear of God and dedicate their days to his Service for that such a Conversation only will bring them peace at the last With what Courage did they meet the King of Terrors How familiar and comfortable were his approaches to them having the same mind which was in the Apostle desirous to be dissolved being confident of spending an Eternity with Christ whose Vertues they endeavoured to imitate and whose Example they made the Pattern and Model of their Actions This is the comfortable State and Condition of good Christians when lying under the unhappy circumstances of Mortal Pains or Sicknesses neither the inconvenience of a crazy and distempered Body nor the fear of Death nor all the disturbances which usually attend a death-bed can shake their Faith or remove their Hope of a blessed Immortality For the very Design and Purpose of Religion is To teach men how to dress their Souls for the embraces of the Father of Spirits to furnish them with such necessary Graces as may prepare them to stand before the Son of Man when he comes to Judgment and he that is endued with this holy Principle and by Practice hath digested it into habit has answered the great end of his being sent into the World and is fortified with considerations sufficient against the worst that may happen to him Of such an excellent and gracious Nature is Religion that it qualifies a man for all states and conditions of Life if he be Rich it instructs him to set loose in his Affections to the Goods and Affluences of this World

conduceth to a happy Life prolongs our days and keeps a calm within our Breasts so it steps in to our Assistance at the last gasp by fortifying us against the fear and terror of death and reviving our drooping Spirits with a solid hope and confidence of commencing a blessed Eternity What a thought it is when a man hath his Winding-sheet in his Eye his last Knell in his Ear when he is just upon a Translation out of this into another World that after this sharp combat between Death and Nature is over his Spirit will soar aloft and feed upon the Entertainments of those blessed Regions above That though his body shall be destroyed with Vermin yet at the command of the great Creator shall be revived and re-united to its proper Soul and both live in the presence of God for ever and ever I say what a thought is this upon a Death bed How doth it relax the mind and comfort all within a man at such a time who hath a hope of Heaven upon good grounds What would not an impenitent Sinner give when languishing that he could but allay the Storm within and command such a sweet Calm that he could chide his outragious Conscience into silence recover his mis-spent time and dye with a good assurance of going to Heaven Some of us probably have visited such Wretches who never thought of dying till just within sight of their Graves What lamentable moans have they made How miserably handled by their wronged minds what sighs and screeches have the remembrance of things past fetched from them What frightful Ideas have their disturbed Spirits presented to them How uneasy and restless worried and even confounded with despair and left this World in unspeakable Agonies Now as we would desire when we lie under the ill circumstances of a crazy body and a mortal distemper to be quiet and peaceable within and wear out our languishing hours with a good assurance of Heaven we must endeavour to lead holy lives which alone bringeth peace at the last But here some may say This we know already and there is no such need of repeating it I confess that I pretend not to insinuate any thing new but only to remind men of their latter end and of those things which belong to their present and future peace and how necessary this is too plainly appears by the lives and practices of many who converse here as if they were never to dye who instead of wiping off their guilt by a sincere Repentance couragiously press on as if they were ambitious of being Heroes in Iniquity they charge through all the modesty of Human nature through all their native sense of a God and a Divine Vengeance and offer a kind of Violence to Hell as if they meant to force open its Brazen Portal and enter headlong into it before it be ready to receive them Is it not therefore necessary to alarm such Wretches with repeated Lectures of Mortality To remind them of Death and Judgment and what must be done by them if they would dye comfortably and behold the face of the Judge Christ Jesus with comfort But Thirdly and Lastly Rcligion is an indispensable Qualification for Heaven Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Though we speak with the tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity we are but as so many sounding brasses and tinkling cymbals Though we have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though we have all faith so that we could remove mountains Nay though we bestow all our goods to feed the poor and give our bodies to be burned yet if we are not truly Religious possessed with the Spirit of Piety and Holiness all this will avail us nothing says the Apostle St. Paul 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 c. Were it possible for a wicked Soul to go to Heaven it would find nothing there which would entertain it to satisfaction For to use the expression of one Our Souls will continue for ever what we make them in this World Such a Temper and Disposition of Mind as a man carries with him out of this Life he shall retain in the next If we do not in a good degree mortify our Lusts and Passions here Death will not kill them for us but we shall carry them with us into the other World so that I say should God admit us so qualified into the place of Happiness yet we shall bring that along with us which would infallibly hinder us from being happy Thou Carnal and Sensual Wretch What Happiness would it be to thee to see God and to have him always in thy View who was never in all thy thoughts To be tied to live for ever in his Company who is of a quite contrary Temper and Disposition to thy self whose presence thou dreadest and whom whilst thou wast in this World couldst never endure to think upon So that the pleasures of the other happy World would signify nothing to him who is not so disposed to take pleasure in them for the Employment of that blessed place as it would be unsuitable so unacceptable to a vicious and ungodly person It is therefore the greatest and most powerful Argument imaginable to the Study and Practice of Religion that it qualifies us for the Enjoyment of God and renders us capable of the Employment and Conversation of Heaven it makes us of the same Temper and Disposition with God and the Holy Angels And then what sweet Harmony and Communion will there be where all are of a mind and all seek one end Therefore upon the whole Let us embrace Religion as that which will fit us for the Enjoyment of the greatest Good then when we come to dye our Faith and Hope will become our Anchor till both be swallowed up in Vision and Fruition May God of his abundant mercy grant that we may so live here that we may not fail of commencing a blessed Eternity with Them And this for Jesus Christ's sake Amen THE FOURTH SERMON JAM IV. 17th Verse Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin IN this Chapter the Apostle is inculcating many excellent duties relating both to God and man to God that we express our selves unto him in all the instances of Humility Reverence and holy Fear to our Neighbour that we do not impair his Reputation nor provoke him by slanderings and backbitings but to do unto him as we would he should do unto us And as the Conclusion of this his Discourse he reminds those to whom he writes and by them all Christians how nearly it concerned them to practice what they heard and knew and that it would enhance their guilt and render them the more inexcusable if they lived in the neglect of that which they knew to be their duty to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin By which the Apostle gives us to understand That Sins against